Marriage & Family

Children are no small matter. We don’t simply have offspring or produce another member of the species, for children are persons endowed with intrinsic and unalienable dignity. To have a child is to become responsible for a being of incalculable … Read

Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) recently proposed that access to affordable and high-quality child care and early education, from birth to school age, should be a right for all Americans, not a privilege reserved for only those who can afford it. … Read

Following a tragic miscarriage, Kate and Toby, characters in NBC’s hit series This is Us, are so desperate for a child that they begin IVF. Many have praised NBC for tackling this topic, however the show is too quick to … Read

Forty years ago the first baby conceived using artificial reproductive technology was born, and since that time, there have been an estimated 8 million more babies born using In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) and related technologies. This is hailed by many … Read

Chronicling the prolific achievements of children of immigrants in the United States in various academic competitions, a physician recently asked: “Why are American-born children now under-represented among the these ranks?” His conclusion is that parents of American-born children have succumbed to the worst elements of the popular philosophy “I just want my child to be happy,” which almost universally sets before them the wrong goal, and the wrong path. Read

Suntan lotion. Check. Bikini/swim trunks. Check. iPhone, earbuds. Check. Family/friends. Checking out. How many times have we seen people, ostensibly together, huddled over their little screens utterly oblivious to those standing right next to them? It’s everywhere. And yet, we weren’t made for this. Maybe as we think about our coming vacations we can work to reclaim what too many of us have willing, if unknowingly, ceded to that little device in the palm of our hand. Read

A New York State Supreme Court justice recently granted three adults shared custody of a 10-year-old boy. It seems that the biological father and his wife had an ongoing romantic relationship with a female neighbor, who conceived and bore the child; the married couple later divorced, and the two women now live together. When “contemporary forms of the family” crash into the lives of small children, what is a judge to do? Read

In an overwhelming (82-8) bipartisan vote, the Virginia House of Delegates approved a measure earlier this month recognizing that pornography leads to societal and individual harms, joining Utah and South Dakota as states that are recognizing pornography’s adverse effects. While religious groups have long recognized the destructive impact of pornography, and the sciences have begun documenting this phenomena increasingly over the past several years, it is significant that another legislature is seeing the need to codify this truth. Read

A couple made up of two women chose a ‘qualified,’ though anonymous, semen donor, profiled as being an eloquent, mature, healthy, intelligent man, to be the father of their child. Almost seven years later, they found that the donor was schizophrenic, left university before graduating and had just been accused of robbery. Furthermore, his picture had been modified to remove a large mole from his face. This donor is the biological father of at least three dozen children… Read

Research has consistently shown the positive impact of marriage on mental health. Might similar benefits exist with cohabitation given that it holds certain elements in common with marriage, and especially now that the stigma associated with cohabitation is all but removed in our “modern” world? Headlines respecting a recent study on the question suggest that just might be the case. Have the supporters of the irreplaceable role of marriage been wrong all this time? Read